Teacher Accused Of Calling Students ‘N’ Word On First Day Of School

An empty classroom of the Nisitenma elementary school in Osaka is seen on May 18, 2009. Japan has confirmed 129 swine flu cases and shuttered more than 2,000 schools and kindergartens in a bid to slow the spread of the virus that may already have infected hundreds. AFP PHOTO / Kazuhiro NOGI (Photo credit should read KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images)One of two teachers at a Louisiana high school is facing felony charges as a continuing investigation looks into allegations that two female teachers had sexual relations with the same 16-year-old male student. (credit: KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images)

DONALDSONVILLE, La. (CBS Houston) — A teacher is accused of calling students the “N” word during class on the first day of school.

CBS affiliate WAFB-TV reports that Lois Polite, a social studies teacher at Lowery Middle School in Donaldsonville, La., is under investigation by the Ascension Parish School System after a parent of a student filed a complaint.

“My son came home very upset,” Shemika Landry told WAFB-TV. “She frequently called the kids the ‘N’ word in the classroom, belittling them, calling them stupid.”

Landry claims that the teacher threatened the students if they complained.

“She told them they can call their ‘maw’ and sent them to the school with their booty shorts on and their high heels but it wasn’t going to change anything because she was the only social studies teacher there and they needed her,” Landry told WAFB.

The school system, who is allowing Polite to continue to teach during the investigation, offered an apology.

“[W]e can’t say a whole lot about the allegations other than we received a complaint and we did an investigation internally and we are handling it as a personnel issue,” Johnnie Balfantz, spokesman for the Ascension Parish School System, told WAFB.

Landry believes Polite should be fired.

“She should be terminated,” Landry said. “If I would go on my job and use that type of language I would be immediately terminated.”

Balfantz says that Polite is currently the only social studies teacher at the school but that substitutes are being lined up in case the teacher is suspended or fired.